It had been a rough quarter at Thatcher-Jenkins. Sales were down as two of the company?s largest clients ceased doing business after they found suppliers that would offer the same services for less. In an attempt to stop the figurative bleeding, Parker had initiated a major overhaul to the management system the company would use. Much of the production staff, who is made up of a lot of people that had been working at the company for several years, found the new technology intrusive to production. Then there were problems with deployment which cost the company some time and a fair amount of capital. The IT staff that was in place at the time simply didn?t have the resources to cover a rushed end-to-end software implementation and their typical workload, leading to production interruptions and other inefficiencies. So, as Parker stood with his hand on the glass of the window in his office, his thoughts weren?t of the impending holiday, his family, or how fortunate he was; they were firmly focused on the latest bought of downtime that took down production for half a day. Who knows how much money it had cost the company? The phone rang. He walked back over to his desk, tripping over the exposed wire to his new VoIP phone that nobody bothered to hide. He snatched at the phone. ?Hello,? he answered, angered. On the other end of the phone was his wife. Mrs. Parker was wondering when Parker would be home. After all, it was Christmas Eve. ?I?m just wrapping up here…Love you too.? He hung up the phone, glanced aimlessly around his office, and slumped down into his desk chair. He sat for a few minutes before he got up, remotely started his car, put his coat on, shut down his computer, turned the lights off, grabbed his bag, and walked out the door. As he slowly shuffled to his car, the snow was falling lightly, but it might have been just the ice in the air as it was a little too cold for snow. His car was the last car in the parking lot. This made him feel very alone. He got in the car and slowly drove away. As he drove past all the houses lit up for Christmas, he started to cheer up. He stopped off at the liquor store to get some brandy and as he was walking out of the store he ran into one of his clients. ?Hey there Parker, Merry Christmas,? the stout man in a black pea coat said. ?Oh, hi there Jack, same to you,? Parker answered as he almost dropped the bottle of brandy he had just bought. ?Whatcha got there?? Jack asked inquisitively. ?We do Brandy Alexanders on Christmas Eve. Family Tradition,? Parker answered. ?Well that?s nice. Look, have a Merry Christmas. Give my best to your family. We?ll talk next week,? Jack said before he scurried away inside the liquor store. Parker walked back to his car, wondering what Jack meant by the ?we?ll talk next week? remark. He sat behind the wheel for a minute, before driving away. The uneasy feeling he had in his office was more like panic as he drove down the street toward his house. Parker started talking to himself in his car, ?What […]

Before we get into how businesses are changing the way they analyze data, we should talk a little bit about the data. You?ve probably heard about the ?big data? trend. This is the active collection of all types of data once reserved for large companies. Recently, as technology has been implemented, and its price has dropped, small businesses are now beginning to use these systems to improve their businesses.  When we refer to data services, we are referring to business intelligence, business analytics, and backup and disaster recovery. These three play varying roles for a business, but can, if leveraged correctly, really bring a lot of value. Let?s look at them individually. Backup and Disaster Recovery For the business that wants to use big data initiatives, protecting that data has to be a priority. In fact, protecting your data should be no matter how you choose to use data. The backup and disaster recovery (BDR) platform works to back up assigned data regularly to ensure that if there is a need for recovery–from a disaster, a malware attack, or human error–that the files that are recovered are relatively up to date.  The BDR is a network-attached device that takes incremental backups of your data and pushes a copy to a secure offsite data center. This ensures that if your hardware were to fail or your business was inundated with a disaster of some kind, that you still have the data available for recovery. The good news is that a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery system is a core part of a managed IT services agreement, but still can be purchased outright.  Business Intelligence Using data to maintain, optimize and streamline a business? operations is called business intelligence (BI). BI supports data-centric decision making. With the plan that it will increase overall productivity and improve efficiency, BI is delivered through reports and data visualization. By organizing data into summaries in order to decipher how different areas of a business are functioning, BI gives answers to how the business is functioning, and has functioned.  BI also can give an analysis of the financial and operational statistics that work to identify weak and strong areas of a business. This can help a business? decision makers make better-informed decisions backed up by empirical data that is easy to decipher. With the ability to see a whole business, and decipher how the current operations can be more effective, decision makers can set goals and strategy.  Business Analytics A business analytics (BA) platform also collects and analyzes data and employs predictive analysis with the core aim of addressing a business? weak points, but that is the only similarities it has with BI. BA software is used to analyze historical and current data to identify the trends in a business. While BI and BA seem relatively similar on the surface–both feature visual representations as well as customizable queries–the main difference is that BI is crunching data that will help businesses structure operations to meet the demands of today, while BA has a clear intention of helping analysts plan for the future. If you would like to learn more about using your data to improve your business, while also protecting that data, call the IT professionals at White Mountain IT Services today at (603) 889-0800.

AirBar Many gadgets just aim to improve the technology you already have in place. If you (or someone on your list) has a laptop you use that doesn’t offer a touchscreen, you can use the AirBar to gain that functionality. AirBar plugs into a USB and has magnets that help mount it under the display. Check out the promotional video:  It comes in 13.3-inch, 14-inch, and 15.6-inch sizes to fit almost any laptop, and can be of use for anyone looking to use a touchscreen on a device that doesn?t come equipped with one. Visit http://air.bar to check out AirBar, and to see if it will work for you.  Anker PowerCore Power Bank The expansion of mobile technology has brought a lot to the business world. It has expanded the opportunities for productivity, including content creation, collaboration, and many other processes. One problem with today?s devices is that they will run out of power mid-task, threatening the continuity of productivity. A power bank, like an Anker PowerCore gives any remote worker hours of extended juice from their devices, expanding their ability to be productive. The Anker PowerCore has dozens of options that can provide over 20,000 mAh of juice, extending the life of your crucial devices. Visit http://anker.com to learn more.  Courant Wireless Charging & Accessory Tray With Qi wireless charging a major feature that many mobile manufacturers have incorporated into their phones, there have been more accessories that bring function to the user. With rumors circulating that Apple is considering going fully wireless by 2021, expect the charging accessory market to ramp up.  If you are in the market for a solid charging tray, Courant has developed some high-end designs including their Catch: 3 tray. It provides fast wireless Qi charging and a place to store a wallet, keys and other common accessories on a desk or nightstand.  Courant has several options for all budgets. Check out their website at http://staycourant.com. Ember Temperature Control Mug For the coffee lover in your life, it may be a challenge keeping their cup of joe warm. Today there are smart mugs like the one above that is offered by Ember. Users can set the temperature they?d like for their favorite warm beverage (from 120?F-to-145?F) and the mug will maintain that temperature. The mug itself remains cool to the touch and lasts for up to 75 minutes uncharged. If you want to purchase the available charging coaster that will keep the beverage as hot as you need it, as long as you need it, you will need to pay extra. If you want to get one for the coffee or tea-lover in your life, check out http://ember.com. These are just four of the gadgets we?ve found. Do you have any tech gadgets you are looking to purchase for the people in your life? If so, leave links in the comments section below.

What is Operational Backup? Let?s start at the beginning. You know your data, and you know what data you need. One thing that your average employee will not consider in the course of their work is what would happen to it if their workstation–or your company?s server in which they store the information–suddenly fails. They take for granted that you have that under control, right?  But, can you?  Can you guarantee that your workstations and servers are protected from unexpected power surges? Can you guarantee that a component in your server doesn?t just go kaput, leaving you scrambling for contingency? You can?t, and that?s why you need to have an operational backup strategy in place. Operational backup is using incremental and differential backups to ensure that when something does happen–including system failure, user error, and everything in between–that your organization has a copy of the data that is, at least, close to current. This strategy doesn?t just speak to production data either, it can literally save business communication, marketing data, you name it. For this reason it is a major part of any realistic business continuity strategy. Why are Operational Backups So Important? The best way to explain why operational backups are so important is to talk about the context where a restore would be most needed. While we don?t have any statistics to throw out at you, you?d have to agree that the cause of most data restores is human error. Once we can agree on that, it explains succinctly why operational backups are so important. The times when data is restored isn?t from a flood washing away your entire server room, it?s from a member of your staff deleting a file, or a folder, or a VM, that they shouldn?t have deleted and you have to restore from backup to get it back.  Another crucial component of your business: email, needs to be covered by an operational backup strategy. Many people use their email to store important files; and, it?s fairly common to delete a message that you end up needing. By having an up-to-date backup of your email server, deleted messages can be restored quickly. An operational backup strategy can also protect settings through systems like Active Directory. Administrators have some pressure on them to ensure that the data represented there is 100 percent accurate, as it plays a huge role in access control and security. For this reason, information can get deleted and lock employees out of certain things. Since Active Directory is such a crucial system, however, operational backups are needed so the entire platform doesn?t have to be restored and reconfigured.  One Serious Problem with Operational Recovery One major problem that businesses have with their operational recovery strategies is the speed in which the data can be recovered. Some backup platforms make it difficult to back up a single file or folder if it is deployed in a virtualized environment. With many businesses using partitioned hardware, it?s crucial that the Virtual Machines running on the hardware are able to be backed up and restored the same as they would be if they were simply hosted directly on a network-attached machine.  With disaster recovery being an important consideration for any business with dynamic backups, sometimes operational backups are relegated to conventional restoration methods rather than […]

Printing at Your Business Traditionally, businesses have used the printer liberally. In fact, according to a survey by Buyer?s Laboratory 90 percent of companies don?t bother tracking their printing costs. While this may be surprising to some–especially considering that number makes up for over five percent of a business? total revenue–with so much attention being put into organizational efficiency, printing is often ignored. If your business is one of the vast majority that doesn?t calculate printing costs, you should consider what it is costing your company. Printing costs are not limited to the cost of paper, ink, and electricity. Today, costs include the 15 percent of the time that your IT department spends dealing with printing issues and the 23 percent of help desk calls that deal with faulty printers, or printer-related issues. This money is coming out of your operational budget and you may not even know it.  What You Can Do? The first thing you should do, if you haven?t already, is to begin tracking your printing costs. It will be very beneficial to learn just how much money you are spending printing out papers that you may not have had to. Next you will want to consider putting in place a print management solution to help you get more transparency about what your associated printing costs are. Print Management is a strategy as well as a software, but you can?t really have one without the other. A print management strategy will allow you to get control over your organizational printing through controlling access and prioritizing the efficiency of document production. The main point of the print management strategy is to lower operating costs without making it difficult for your company to have the ability to print the necessary documents.  Some of the biggest benefits that a print management platform can provide include: Clear Assessment – As stated above, most organizations don?t bother tracking their printing costs. This tool will give you a clear view of your business? print volumes, printer and copier maintenance logs, and print routing information. Management – The print management platform gives day-to-day control over the organization?s printers and user print settings. Paper-to-Digital Conversion – This is where you would determine the utility of printed solutions. If you can transfer them to digital-only ones, you will invariably spend less money on printing. Improved Security – The more control you have over data, the more secure it is. When you rely on paper-based correspondence, there?s a higher chance of a security lapse. Real-Time Tracking – By tracking your print volumes, you can keep costs low, control user print limitations, and more.  If you are spending too much money on your business? documents, call the IT experts at White Mountain IT Services today to learn how to curtail those costs at (603) 889-0800.